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Day 40 – Falls of Rough to Bardstown

Posted by Alan on Thu, 15th Jul, 2010.
Filed under: Kentucky

Thurs 15th July 2010

Today’s forecast was for the hottest day here for three years with 94% humidity and the heat index at 106 degrees F. With almost 100 miles to do we thought we’d better start early so we put our clocks forward ahead of the time change we would cross today and set the alarm for 5:00am which meant that we woke up at 4:00am local time. (this doesn’t feel like a holiday anymore).

Don't stand under these

We were ready to go before it was light so for the first time we used our rear lights and got away while it was still relatively cool. We were in no rush today and took every opportunity to refill our water bottles as it was important that we drank lots in such conditions. It was like cycling in an oven once the sun had come up.

We've passed some great properties along the way

The terrain and scenery was much the same as the last couple of days but that’s fine because it’s very picturesque with lots of twists and turns. We also had a few dogs chasing us (chasing me that is) but I think most were too hot to bother today. The highlight of today’s ride was cycling past the place where Abraham Lincoln was born near to a place called Buffalo and past a church where one of his childhood friends is buried.

A rare sight these days

We rolled into Bardstown at about 4:30pm after a long day on the bikes and were pleased to get showered and out of the extreme heat. Bardstown is the Bourbon capital of the USA and is the home to a number of distilleries including Jim Beam.

Daily Mileage -97.6 miles

Time in Saddle -8 hrs 19 mins

Total Climbing – 4,722 ft